Hugh Grant’s newie movie “The Rewrite” is out Friday.
“I play an award-winning Hollywood screenwriter. There are moving, touching scenes. Things go bad and he becomes a professor upstate. We filmed in Binghamton, NY, a delightful city where the university confers Bearcat status on you.”
Forget Bearcats, his “The Rewrite” also stars Oscar nominee J.K. Simmons. Will Hugh attend the Academy Awards?
“No. I’ve watched several films but can’t remember the names. I was attending a premiere of ‘Virunga,’ but somehow the big bruiser at the door didn’t recognize me, so I got turned around and saw one of the nominated ones at my local cinema, but don’t remember which.”
Hugh Grant, formerly moviedom’s romantic-comedy king, was once in and out of sheets and on and off mattresses. So would he go naked like actors of today?
“I showed my ass once. I was 25 then. It was a quite nice-looking 25-year-old ass then. I no longer plan on flashing it, except to my 2-year-old son. Now, most days when he sees it, it makes him laugh. Nor have I interest in showing any of my other bits either.
“Next I’m making ‘Florence Foster Jenkins,’ a classy film with Meryl Streep about terrible singer Florence Foster Jenkins who believed she was a genius. I play a young husband. Takes place during a 1940s summer and is set in New York, but we’re shooting in London. I don’t quite understand that. Although it’s a Stephen Frears movie, I’m told New York’s now just too damn expensive.
“So I’m only here a few days, then back to London,” where, may he know, things cost more than in New York.
At the heart of the matter
Ron Perelman stopped running the world long enough to feed Trudie Styler, Arianna Huffington, Hearst’s Ellen Levine, HBO’s Sheila Nevins, B’way’s Daryl Roth, Marlo Thomas, Liz Smith and 50 ladies lunch at Michael’s.
Perelman: “Heart disease, the No. 1 killer for women, worries me because I have ex-wives and daughters to protect. With help from Barbra Streisand, who’s done similarly in California, I built what’s now our No. 1 heart center.”
Rosie O’Donnell: “And that’s why this lunch. He’s honoring me with an award today because I haven’t died.”
Then, on leaving “The View”: “After my serious health scare last year, worst is stress. I’m on medication. I lost 55 pounds. Doctors insist I lose another 20. How can I lose another 20? I’m now a medium dress size. I haven’t been medium since eighth grade.
“For peace, I’ve moved back to Nyack. From my son, 19, who wants to join the Marines, to my little adopted baby, five kids make problems.
“Also, ‘The View,’ which I loved, changed. Not the same. It needs Barbara Walters. It now lacks leadership.”
Odds & ends
Deana Martin, doing concerts in Australia, writes: “My 2004 best seller, ‘Memories are Made of This: Dean Martin Through His Daughter’s Eyes’, just hit the top 10 nonfiction e-book best-seller list! This format’s like catching lightning in a bottle . . . again!” . . .
Why Saudi foreign minister didn’t attend the king’s funeral? Because he was in a quantity of rooms at Columbia-Presbyterian . . .
Style puhleez
A Beaut accosted a lady in fur with: “Wearing fur’s a sin. Disgusting.” The beaut was stuffed into tight décolleté down to her navel. Quivering were two canteloupes. Short-short dress stopped short short of the rubber band around her private parts. She also teetered on sequin spike platforms. And she was razzing another lady’s wardrobe?
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.